Pathfinders
by Shadows of the Kasrkins
Summary: what happens when six Airborne paratroopers are transported mid drop into spyro's world and with the Dark Army pounding on Warfang's front door.
1. Chapter 1

**Pathfinders**

_"we departed during the moonlit hours, our plane packed with troops and equipment. as we approached our plane was caught in several spot light beams. they lit up the cockpit as bright as day and then all hell broke loose."_

**Chapter 1: The Jump**

Henry was knocked to the floor as a flack burst rocked the plane, white hot shrapnel burst into the troop bay of the plane. a piece glanced off of Henry's helmet, bullets came up through the floor spearing men with hot lead. The man next to him was blown to the floor by a flak shell bursting behind the wall of his seat, his back mutilated by the shrapnel.

Henry looked around wildly, the light turned red and acting on the hammered in instructions of his instructors he stood up and snapped in his static line holding its webbing in his right hand. He stared hard at the man's gear in front of him, all looked perfect. The gear check came to him.

"8 ok!" He called out

Within only a few seconds the gear check was over, the six remaining men of the drop group waited for what seemed like an eternity. everything was silent except the roar of engines none of them realized it because by the time it went quiet the green light flicked on.

"Green light! go go go!" the squad leader, Lt. Waters, jumped out the door into the cloudy night. Henry followed third to last behind Cpl. Charles the medic, behind Henry were Pvt. John and Pfc. Gordon the machine gunners. In between Charles and Waters was Cpl. Lachlan the radioman.

Henry walked down as each man jumped and watched numbly as Charles dropped from the door before him, Henry swallowed his heart closed his eyes and took the step.

It seemed like an hour before the chute opened jarring Henry and making him clack his teeth painfully. For a second or two the parachute swung side to side, swinging Henry like a pendulum in a very nauseating way. Henry luckily held down the bile in his throat. He looked down to see thick tree tops.

"This is gona hurt" Henry muttered under his breath as the trees rapidly closed.

Henry closed his eyes and shield his face with his arms right before entering the tree tops, twigs and branches wacked against his body some drawing blood and a few twigs managed to get into his helmet and dig into his scalp. The branches finally tangled in the chute and chord bringing Henry to an abrupt stop.

Henry hung in his harness with his arms over his face for a few seconds, he dropped them to see the ground covered in waist high ferns just four feet below him. Henry was about to reach for his bayonet when the branches holding his chute gave way, dropping him to the forest floor.

Henry laid there on his back for a few minutes until the sound of movement in the under growth alerted him. He intently drew his sidearm, not even disengaging his harness . He rose to a crouch pistol up and began peering into the darkness.

"Flash!" Henry called out, for a second there was no response, then a voice called out

"Thunder!"

Some rustling could be heard and two figures walked out from the shadows.

Gordon and John, Gordon with his browning 1919 over his shoulder and John with his M1A1 Carbine in hand.

"Hey you two seen Waters?" Henry whispered as the two approached low and fast. "No, you?" Henry shook his head no and undid his harness.

While Henry undid his harness and gathered up his gear, Gordon pulled out a compass.

"Well if you land here and we headed West to find you we should just keep heading west they'll be along our path somewhere" Gordon stated.

Henry nodded his head and so did John, when Henry was done with his gear the trio moved west following the C-47's flight path.

"God, I can't believe it's so quiet shouldn't there be AA and gun fire" Henry spoke to John on his right "I can't believe it either it was Hell in the plane and now it's just silent"

"Hey quiet you two Jerry could be anywhere." Gordon ordered, the two fell silent.

Henry spotted something off to his right up a slope, he held his hand up and crouched down the other two following suit.

"What is it?" Gordon asked, Henry pointed at the top of the slope. Three silhouettes with their backs turned, they seemed to be looking at something.

The three crouched walked up closer to them until they were about ten feet away, before giving the call phrase.

"Flash" Henry whispered loudly

"Thunder" a deep but low voice called back

"Looks like we found you three" Gordon whispered, smiling widely.

"Hey, get up here you three need to see this." Waters called down to them.

The three men walked up and knelt next to the Lt. looking out over the expanse of land.

"We're not in France" was all John said.

Henry was awe struck, the forest ended at the bottom of their hill and opened up to grassy plains and rising from the plains was a massive walled city. But it was no awe of beauty, the men could see siege engines tossing flaming balls of fire over the walls. massive fires raged behind the walls and black speaks danced in the sky.

"Good god where are we?" Gordon asked under his breath

"I bet the people in that city know" Waters said

The whole squad turned toward him their mouths open in shock.

"Are you crazy, Sir we can't take on an army and how do we know which side is in the right. for all we damn well know the person in charge of that city is the incarnation of the damn devil himself." Charles ranted

"Or" Waters started silencing Charles "those are good people in a fight like our country and losing to the power of the incarnation of the devil himself, before we go helping anyone we have to determine what each side's mind set is. preferably without being seen. so get some shut eye we sleep here tonight."

The rest of the men were silent they agreed with the idea, and they had no better ideas themselves. Henry found a spot where he could lay up against a tree and watch the fight, he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep. Henry turned as he heard the one of the other men sitting down next to him.

"Hey Lieutenant" Henry whispered his greeting.

Waters nodded his head "can't sleep huh? I was the same my first time, I was in Sicily. Just remember that the man next to you is the most important thing. Cover them and they'll cover you, we play it like that and we'll get through this one in one piece."

Henry nodded, Waters patted him on the shoulder and moved off to see what the others were up to.

"I just hope we choose the right side"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Contact!**

Henry opened his eyes to find himself standing in a massive library, bookshelves two stories tall surrounded him.

"Welcome young warrior" a voice boomed behind him

Henry turned and immediately went to draw his pistol only to find that he was unarmed, and standing before him was a massive blue scaled dragon. A large blue cape on its back and steel bracers on the wrists of its forelegs.

"Be calm I do not mean you harm" the dragon said calmly.

Henry looked the beast up and down still disbelieving him, he guessed by the voice, he didn't trust the dragon but he listened.

"Then why am I here?" Henry asked

"Because I have a message for you"

"Ok I'm listening"

"Not just words young one, I will show you images" the dragon motioned for Henry to come over to a pool of water that was in the center of the room. Henry obeyed approaching the pool slowly wary of danger.

"Look in to the water" the dragon directed

Henry did as the dragon said looking into the crystal clear water, images began to form in the water like reflections on the surface. He saw creatures, bi-pedal cheetahs and moles defending the top of walls. massive ugly brutes trying to gain an advantage and push up onto the walls. above dragons and odd almost dragon like creatures fought in the sky, dragons launching ice, fire lighting and earth from their maws. While these strange creatures spit poisons and acids.

The images began to fade and the dragon spoke its voice low and quiet from the sights. "You and your friends want to know who is good and who is evil. Now you know"

"But how can I explain all this? they'll think me crazy if I say I saw it in a dream!" Henry asked exasperated

"Don't worry I will be informing all of you in your dreams" The dragon said, calming the human who nodded

"So now what?" Henry asked

"You go back to your dream world and I will finish my task at hand" The dragon said and before Henry could say anything the world fell back into his dreams.

Henry woke with a start at the sounds of war machines in the distance, he looked toward the city to see the siege engines still at work but no assaults. The defenders most likely hunkered down in stronger parts of the walls waiting to meet today's forces.

Henry guessed that the city was a bonafide hell hole with fires to compare to hell itself, the visions from his dream came to mind and he growled under his breath. "What sick bastard does this?" he thought as the sun slowly rose giving light to the new morning.

Henry stood up and hosted his rucksack and rifle onto his back "But it takes a man to stand up to these bastards"

Henry heard the sounds of the rest of his squad rousing from sleep, and it wasn't long until the Lt.'s voice called out.

"Alright ladies rise 'en shine, it's a new day for the 101st and its time to find a path into that city." The Lieutenant's voice was rallied up but the rest of the squad was still trying to wake up, besides Henry who was wide awake and rearing to go.

"Y'all have five mikes to get your ass rea-"

But the Lieutenant was cut off by a loud roar rising up from the base of the slope, the roar was followed by battle cries and the sound steel hitting steel.

The noise had the Soldiers up and ready in a matter of seconds and racing down the hill to see the two sides.

Henry ran down the hill as fast has he could jumping over fallen trees and ducking under branches as they rushed to meet him. his equipment rattled around as he ran, and so did the rest of the squads which allowed him to know that they were hot on his heels.

Soon the ground began to level out and the ferns grew thinner and so did the trees, allowing him to see the fight they were approaching. Henry stopped crouching behind a tree for cover, waiting for the others. it was only a few seconds until he heard bounding footsteps and looked over his shoulder to see Lieutenant Waters bounding up to him the others only and arm's length behind.

They all skidded to a stop and crouched down grouping up. Waters took a quick look at the terrain and then the battle before giving orders. He could see two dragons facing a group ape like creatures and ugly green brutes.

"Ok were going to move as a group to that creek, Gordon and john I want you two to set up suppressing fire with the thirty, Charles stay with them. The rest of you are with me, and all of you DO NOT shoot the dragons just those damn ugly apes and green fuckers." Waters said firmly everybody nodded and the group took off running low and fast to the creek.

within seconds after they reached the creek bed Gordon had the thirty up and load with John aiming down his carbine sighting in an enemy, Charles was hunkered down ready for wounded.

Waters counted down in his head before he yelled "Suppressing fire!" and 30 Cal. opened up cutting into the group of apes and ugly green skinned creatures, the assault team moved forwards Waters spraying his Thomson SMG as he moved up, Henry and the others advanced behind him firing two shots into each enemy.

Their fire concentration paled in comparison to the Browning 1919 that was spitting hot lead down rang like it was going out of style, within less than three minutes the apes and green skins were in retreat.

They left their prey, two Dragons staring stunned at the fleeing apes and when they turned to face the direction of the sounds that had cut down the apes, they were meet with gun barrels pointed at them.

But Waters laid a hand on Henry's rifle and he lowered the weapon and relaxed a little, the others did the same and the tension in the air lowered.

The two dragons one white and the other green began to relax, the green one broke the silence.

"I guess we owe you a debt of gratitude" the dragon said in a sing song voice telling Henry she was most defiantly female and if her friend's body structure also told him that they were both female.

_Bleeding Out: Imagine Dragons_

Their was a snap of a twig and swath of projectiles flew around the group and one found its way into Henry's shoulder. Henry heard a pained roar and saw the snow white scaled Dragoness take two arrows one to the chest and another to the flank.

His allies ducked behind the trees and the other dragon took cover. but the white dragon could not move and Henry could see this. He drew his Colt 1911 and fired a few shots off using his good arm. He moved is body to protect the dragon as his team took shots at the bowmen, with the added help of Gordon on the machine gun. Henry saw Charles out the corner of his eye sprinting towards him. Henry began to feel faint his legs wobbled and he crumbled down to his knees, a bow men with a crossbow saw this and took a shot at the weakened soldier.

The arrow flew straight and true and embed itself into Henry's chest throwing him onto his back, Henry's head lolled to the side and the gun fire began to fade, his senses dulled and his mind went numb, then blackness...

Voices began to whisper in the darkness, their voices low but just audible.

_"Should we? He is worthy... yes his first thought was to protect that dragoness, and he had never seen a dragon before. He protected a dragon without question as if on instinct. His heart it is... Pure! yes it is pure and untainted. Then we all agree? yes... then let us begin" _


End file.
